Boeing 747-8 vs.

Airbus A380 -- the airline giants face off | CNN Travel

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Boeing 747-8 vs. Airbus A380 -- the airline giants face off
Now that the Boeing 747-8 has received its FAA certification, here's a look at how it fares against its mighty rival, the Airbus A380
17 December, 2011

Comment

17

Top Trump: The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, left, and the Airbus A380.

Boeing's 747-8 Intercontinental, the latest incarnation of its era-defining passenger jet, has received its certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. The European Aviation Safety Agency is expected to follow suit imminently. That means it's safe to fly and opens the way for its 36 orders to start shipping "early next year" according to Boeing. Also on CNNGo: Boeing unveils the new 747-8i (http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/boeing-unveils747-8-passenger-plane-rival-airbus-a380-842000)

It's the longest passenger plane in the world and takes on the Airbus A380 head-on. But how do these two leviathans of the skies compare? We present to you the Airbus 747-8 and Airbus A380 face off. Figures are obtained from Boeing and Airbus, except where stated.

Round 1: Capacity
Boeing 747-8: 467 passengers, in a three-class configuration Airbus A380: 525 passengers, in a three-class configuration The Airbus is the clear winner in this round, and inspired a rather curt reaction from Boeing deputy program manager Elizabeth Lund to Bloomberg
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-13/boeing-expects-passenger-version-of-747-8-to-fly-in-early-springin-u-s-.html) ,

"With an A380, you run the risk of not filling every seat whenever you fly."

Fightin' talk starts, the game is on.

Round 2: Length
Boeing 747-8: 76 meters Airbus A380: 72.72 meters

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The Boeing is 3.28 meters longer than the Airbus, officially making it the longest commercial plane in the world right now. Oh, that's good. Who cares how many passengers you can carry -- anything that can be called "the world's longest" is a winner. Boeing slugs back.

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Round 3: Internal cabin width

Boeing 747-8: 6.1 meters Airbus A380: 6.54 meters The Intercontinental has the same cabin width
(http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_400_prod.html) as

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its predecessor (the Boeing 747-400), but claims to be able to carry 51 more passengers due to its extra length of 18.3 feet. However, Airbus execs have pointed out that the 747-8 has yet to pass evacuation tests. "I am going to be taking that aircraft one day," Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy told Dow Jones (http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110216-711260.html) . "I want to be sure that you can get out of it in an emergency." To this, Boeing spokesman Jim Proulx responded that the plane will meet all certification standards for emergency evacuation.

Round 4: Price
Boeing 747-8: INR18,431 million Airbus A380: INR21,786 million The Airb A380-800 sells for nearly USINR3,367 million more than the new Boeing as of January this year, depending on customization and engine. That's not exactly small change. It means for every five A380s you buy you could get six 747-8s.

Round 5: Cruising speed

Boeing 747-8: Typical cruise speed at Mach 0.855, top cruise speed: Mach 0.86 (or 86 percent the speed of sound). Airbus A380: Typical cruise speed at Mach 0.85 (from BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4990780.stm) ), top cruise speed at Mach 0.88 (from Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net /aircraft-data/stats.main?id=29) ) In terms of typical speed Boeing 747-8 wins, but this is a serious slug-fest, and there's no time for cruising. We're giving this one to Airbus.

Round 6: Range
Boeing 747-8: 8,000 nautical miles Airbus A380: 8,300 nautical miles Both planes will be able to cover long haul, transcontinental flights such as those between New York and Hong Kong, Los Angeles to Mumbai, and London to Singapore. For an interactive map on A380s range click on Airbus.com (http://www.airbus.com/aircraftfamilies /passengeraircraft/a380family/a380-800/performance/) . Details on 747-8's range can be found at Boeing.com (http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/747-8_fact_sheet.html) .

Round 7: Wing span

Boeing 747-8: 68.5 meters Airbus A380: 79.75 meters Airbus chews up the Boeing a few times over when it comes to wingspan. But both are doing clever things. The Boeing's new wing design claims to heighten performance while lowering noise levels. Its fly-by-wire

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spoilers and outboard ailerons, pioneered by the 787 Dreamliner, can allegedly save weight. The Airbus A380 also has a new wing design (at the time of its launch, anyway) that employs aluminum alloys for the wing and fuselage, and composite materials for the center wing box, which reduces the overall weight of the aircraft.

Round 8: Fuel efficiency

Boeing 747-8: 2.8 liters per seat per 100 kilometers Airbus A380: 2.9 liters per passenger per 100 kilometers (from Nat Geo (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005 /01/0118_050118_airbus_2.html) )

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Ooh, now we've hit a nerve. Both sides regurgitated some rather fuzzy PR when it came to fuel efficiency, preferring to simply say "the competition is worse" and compiling estimates based on different underlying assumptions, especially the average flight length and the number of passengers on board, as this Nat Geo article (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005 /01/0118_050118_airbus_2.html) explains. But while Boeing gave us a hard figure of 2.8 liters per seat per 100 kilometers, Airbus didn't respond, so we assigned them a figure of 2.9 liters per passenger per 100 kilometers, as stated in the Nat Geo article.

Result
What does all this mean? For the serious competition fiends out there Airbus comes out on top, five rounds to three. Also on CNNGo: Boeing through the years: 10 revolutionary aircraft
(Now%20that%20the%20Boeing%20747-8%20has%20received%20its%20FAA%20certification,%20here's%20a%20look %20at%20how%20it%20fares%20against%20its%20mighty%20rival,%20the%20Airbus%20A380)

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-8 vs. Airbus A380 -- the

bob

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this is so retarded and so obvious the author knows nothing about aircraft and is obviously obsessed with Airbus. Wingspan winner would go the other way a smaller wingspan would be better since it enables the aircraft to go to more airports. Typical cruising speed is more important then max speed in today's high price fuel world. Good categories would be: Fuel burn per passenger: 747-8 Max load passenger: A380 Cost per passenger: need more information Airports that can support it: 747-8 Possibly noise? need more info CO2 burn output? 747-8 Overhead bin space per passenger? 747-8 Minimum runway required at max weight? 747-8 you know things that actually matter how about just looks? the A380 looks like the retarded brother of the 747 which has a clean eloquent look that shows a commanding presence
9 Ells Talbott

What a retarded way to compare 2 aircraft........wing span means a plane comes out on top??? Are you serious? Gees, do a comparative article that actually means something.....
3 patel

love u 747-8 best of boeing

4 Ronald So

lol shouldn't a longer wing span be a disadvantage as a lot of airports in the world still cannot support a long wing span as the A380 didn't know limited destination is an advantage
3 Qiuyuan Chen

Easy, check out the market. Money talks buddy.

Nuy987

The wingspan of the Airbus A380 is much bigger and longer than the wingspan of the Boeing 747. The 747's wingspan is about 50 feet long while the A380's wingspan is about 60 feet long and the way, because this is an airplane contest to compare these 2 huge planes!

Nuy987

The Airbus A380 is bigger and has more longer range than the Boeing 747. The Boeing 747 airplane can only carry up to 800 people onboard while the Airbus A380 airplane can carry up to 1,000 people onboard. It like saying that the Boeing 787 can fly farther and longer than the Boeing 777. But I would love to see the Airbus A350 and the Airbus A330!
1 power4things

Uh, I think aircraft price, seat-mile costs, and maybe max range are the only things that really matter to airlines. After a certain point, larger cabin width is actually a liability, as it increases wind resistance and fuel consumption. Wing length is NEVER an advantage, if not needed - shorter is always better. Basically, this is the wrong place for "whose is the biggest" or 5-1/1000's of a Mach number faster, or the other stats that 5th-graders argue over at recess. Plus, having the most recognized silhouette in the air, and I will submit Boeing wins, by a substantial hair.
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